Liquid Dish Soap

Humans have been washing dishes for centuries. Are innovations in dish soap making the job any easier?

How We Tested

As much as we love our dishwashers, when washing delicate china, wood cutting boards, sharp knives, and pots and pans, we still rely on soap and sponge. The last time we tested dish soaps, in 2007, we liked Method Go Naked Ultra Concentrated Dish Detergent best. But it was recently discontinued, so we are revisiting the subject.

We were surprised to find a host of new soaps designed for people who scrub dishes under a running tap rather than fill the sink with soapy water—the more traditional method. So we decided to include three such products: two with pumps that foam straight from the bottle, and one with a special motion-sensor system for germ-free dispensing. We also found an unusual dishwasher detergent/dish soap hybrid. Four of the seven products also make some claim to being environmentally friendly, so we pitted them against the benchmark for traditional liquid soaps—the national best seller Dawn Ultra.

In the kitchen, we gleefully made a mess, burning skillets with measured portions of hard-to-clean foods like béchamel sauce and chicken teriyaki. Controlling for the amount of soap, water temperature, and type of sponge, we washed the pans using both the fill-sink method and the rinse method, counting the strokes needed to get each pan clean. Our best soaps required fewer than 70 strokes, while others needed anywhere from 85 to 100. One soap consistently required more than 100 strokes and even then left a film of oil. What accounted for these differences?

Oil and water repel each other, so soap makes washing dishes easier because it contains surfactants, tadpole-shaped chemicals with water-loving heads and oil-loving tails that encourage water and fat to mix. Surfactants can be made from plants (for all-natural cleaners) or petroleum, but according to Brian Grady, director of the Institute of Applied Surfactant Research at the University of Oklahoma, the origin of surfactants doesn’t determine the effectiveness of the soap. “There’s no inherent advantage of one over the other,” he said. “It comes down to the individual formula and overall quantity of surfactants.”

We turned to a simple science project to measure the power of each product. Surfactants make water “wetter” by lowering its surface tension, allowing tightly packed water molecules to spread out and make room for dirt and grease. We mixed a measured solution of soap and water in plastic cups and suspended a strip of paper bag so that it was just touching the surface. A solution with strong surfactants (and therefore lower surface tension) will allow the water to climb the strip of paper; the higher it travels the stronger the surfactants.

After an hour, the two top-performing soaps climbed an average of more than 40 millimeters, while plain water traveled only 10 millimeters. Our poorest-performing soap (the same product that left dishes filmy with oil) climbed just 11 millimeters. Despite the manufacturer’s claims, it didn’t work in the dishwasher either. We used the data from this test to calculate the strength of surfactants of each soap.

Scent also mattered to our testers, although we gave it less weight in our rankings than washing ability. We asked each soapmaker for its most popular fragrance and had 21 test kitchen staffers sniff each product mixed with water. Testers preferred lightly scented soaps.

All but one of our soaps performed reasonably well, though we’re not sold on foams, even for tap runners. Our recommended soaps worked no matter how we washed with them. In fact, all the products that we tested performed best when we used the fill-sink approach. Why? Since surfactants are dispersed throughout the water, the surfactants are cleaning your dishes even when you’re not scrubbing.

In the end, one soap whipped both innovative products and a traditional favorite, no matter our washing technique, and we liked its smell, too. From now on, we’ll use our winner when we have a sinkful of dirty dishes.

Try CooksCountry.com FREE for 14 Days

START YOUR 14-DAY FREE TRIAL MEMBERSHIP

Every Recipe, Every Rating, Every Video from Every Magazine & Every Episode!

10+ years of Cook's Country Foolproof Recipes

Complete Cook's Country TV Video Library

3,800+ Equipment Reviews and Ingredient Taste Tests

Step-by-Step Technique Photos

Save Favorites, Create Menus, Print Shopping Lists

Enter your email address

Email is required

How we use your email address

America's Test Kitchen will not sell, rent, or disclose your email address
to third parties unless otherwise notified. Your email address is required
to identify you for free access to content on the site. You will also
receive free newsletters and notification of America's Test Kitchen specials.

Dear Home Cook,

If we were new to CooksCountry.com, we might think, “It’s easy to get free recipes on the Internet. What makes your recipes different?” Well, unlike recipes from blogs, message boards, and other recipe sites, our recipes are exhaustively tested by our team of full-time test cooks until they offer consistently great results. That means fried chicken with a crunchy coating and moist meat, a low-fat recipe makeover for macaroni and cheese that’s as creamy and cheesy as the full-fat version, and fork-tender slow cooker pot roast.

We’re obsessive in our quest to find and foolproof the best of American home cooking, from fuss-free weeknight dinners, to updated, simplified versions of regional specialties, to slow cooker and make ahead meals. CooksCountry.com is the only place you can find every foolproof recipe published in Cook’s Country magazine since 2005, plus objective ratings and test results from both Cook’s Country and Cook’s Illustrated for cookware and supermarket ingredients.

Let us make a simple, no-nonsense offer. Try out our website FREE for a 14-Day, No-Hassle Trial Offer. We’re pretty confident that CooksCountry.com will quickly become an invaluable resource for everything from a quick Tuesday supper to your next get-together with family and friends.

Thanks for your consideration,

The Editors of Cook’s Country

Enter your email address

Email is required

How we use your email address

America's Test Kitchen will not sell, rent, or disclose your email address
to third parties unless otherwise notified. Your email address is required
to identify you for free access to content on the site. You will also
receive free newsletters and notification of America's Test Kitchen specials.

The Results

Winner

Recommended

Design Trifecta 360 Knife Block

Design Trifecta 360 Knife Block

Admittedly expensive, this handsome block certainly seemed to live up to its billing as “the last knife block you ever have to buy.” The heaviest model in our testing, this block was ultrastable, and its durable bamboo exterior was a breeze to clean. Well-placed medium-strength magnets made it easy to attach all our knives, and a rotating base gave us quick access to them. One tiny quibble: The blade of our 12-inch slicing knife stuck out a little

Winner

Recommended

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Our old winner arrived with the slickest preseasoned interior and only got better. Broad enough to cook two big steaks, it browned foods deeply, and its thorough seasoning ensured that our acidic pan sauce picked up no off-flavors. Though its handle is short, the pan has a helper handle that made lifting easy. It survived abuse testing without a scratch. An excellent pan, at an excellent price, that you’ll never have to replace.

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Our old winner arrived with the slickest preseasoned interior and only got better. Broad enough to cook two big steaks, it browned foods deeply, and its thorough seasoning ensured that our acidic pan sauce picked up no off-flavors. Though its handle is short, the pan has a helper handle that made lifting easy. It survived abuse testing without a scratch. An excellent pan, at an excellent price, that you’ll never have to replace.

Winner

Recommended

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Our old winner arrived with the slickest preseasoned interior and only got better. Broad enough to cook two big steaks, it browned foods deeply, and its thorough seasoning ensured that our acidic pan sauce picked up no off-flavors. Though its handle is short, the pan has a helper handle that made lifting easy. It survived abuse testing without a scratch. An excellent pan, at an excellent price, that you’ll never have to replace.

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Our old winner arrived with the slickest preseasoned interior and only got better. Broad enough to cook two big steaks, it browned foods deeply, and its thorough seasoning ensured that our acidic pan sauce picked up no off-flavors. Though its handle is short, the pan has a helper handle that made lifting easy. It survived abuse testing without a scratch. An excellent pan, at an excellent price, that you’ll never have to replace.

Winner

Recommended

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Our old winner arrived with the slickest preseasoned interior and only got better. Broad enough to cook two big steaks, it browned foods deeply, and its thorough seasoning ensured that our acidic pan sauce picked up no off-flavors. Though its handle is short, the pan has a helper handle that made lifting easy. It survived abuse testing without a scratch. An excellent pan, at an excellent price, that you’ll never have to replace.

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Our old winner arrived with the slickest preseasoned interior and only got better. Broad enough to cook two big steaks, it browned foods deeply, and its thorough seasoning ensured that our acidic pan sauce picked up no off-flavors. Though its handle is short, the pan has a helper handle that made lifting easy. It survived abuse testing without a scratch. An excellent pan, at an excellent price, that you’ll never have to replace.

Winner

Recommended

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Our old winner arrived with the slickest preseasoned interior and only got better. Broad enough to cook two big steaks, it browned foods deeply, and its thorough seasoning ensured that our acidic pan sauce picked up no off-flavors. Though its handle is short, the pan has a helper handle that made lifting easy. It survived abuse testing without a scratch. An excellent pan, at an excellent price, that you’ll never have to replace.

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Lodge Classic Cast Iron Skillet, 12"

Our old winner arrived with the slickest preseasoned interior and only got better. Broad enough to cook two big steaks, it browned foods deeply, and its thorough seasoning ensured that our acidic pan sauce picked up no off-flavors. Though its handle is short, the pan has a helper handle that made lifting easy. It survived abuse testing without a scratch. An excellent pan, at an excellent price, that you’ll never have to replace.

Sign up for our cooking newsletter

How we use your email address
America's Test Kitchen will not sell, rent, or disclose your email address to third parties unless otherwise notified. Your email address is required to identify you for free access to content on the site. You will also receive free newsletters and notification of America's Test Kitchen specials.